Lynk Global, Inc. (Lynk) has successfully completed their pre-commercial tests for the firm’s fifth satellite. The completion of this technical milestone advances Lynk’s planned deployment of its global ‘cell-towers-in-space’ service later this year.
To date, Lynk’s fifth satellite has connected to thousands of unique devices including, smartphones and tablets, IoT devices, cars, trucks, and even tractors. It has done so across five different countries, (Bahamas, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States), spanning three continents, enabling direct two-way connectivity between devices and Lynk’s satellites. During testing, Lynk’s satellite on-orbit connected to mobile phones from eight of the top ten mobile network operators in the world.
Lynk’s latest technical development builds on the company’s mission to connect everyone, everywhere, and will underpin Lynk’s future commercial service. Indeed, the company has already signed contracts with seven mobile network operators for its commercial service, with more to be announced in the coming year.
Lynk’s CEO and Co-Founder, Charles Miller, who spoke on the ‘The State of Smallsat Constellations: Prospects for Current and Planned Systems” at the SmallSat Symposium (8-10 February) in Silicon Valley, said, “The mobile phone is the most important piece of technology in the lives of billions of people. It has revolutionized the way we communicate and transformed economies and societies around the world. Yet, existing terrestrial-based towers do not, and will never, provide coverage for vast regions of our planet. At Lynk, we believe that every single person should be able to access affordable, reliable mobile connectivity everywhere. We’re excited to see the completion of pre-commercial tests for our fifth satellite as we move one step closer to launching commercial services later this year.”
As part of this announcement, Lynk is releasing a map illustrating some of the “world firsts” accomplished during testing, and an image of its new satellite design, optimized for “satellite direct to phone” capabilities.
In 2022, Lynk will provide the world’s first commercial satellite direct-to-mobile-phone service, enabling affordable, reliable mobile phone connectivity to everyone, everywhere across the globe. Founded in 2017 by veteran space and telecoms leaders, the Lynk team invented, patented and proved that a satellite could serve as a “cell tower in space” and connect directly to a standard mobile phone on Earth – a technological feat verified by independent third parties. Today, Lynk is the only company in the world to have successfully sent text messages to and from space via unmodified mobile devices. By partnering with Lynk via a simple roaming agreement, a mobile network operator opens the door to untapped markets, gives subscribers peace of mind with ubiquitous connectivity and provides a pathway to economic prosperity for billions of the world’s citizens.